1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer technology, and more particularly, to a computer data storage unit reinstallation data protection method and system which is designed for use with a computer platform, such as a network server, that is to be connected to a data storage unit, such as a RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) unit, whose stored old data are intended to be used by the computer platform, for the purpose of preventing the RAID unit from being inadvertently formatted by the user during the reinstallation that would otherwise cause all the old data on the reinstalled RAID unit to be entirely lost.
2. Description of Related Art
RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is a multi-disk storage unit that contains two or more hard disks for providing a very large data storage capacity, and which is commonly connected in a network system to one or more servers for these servers to store the large amount of data that flow through the network system.
In actual applications, it is a common practice to install one RAID unit on a certain server and afterwards remove the RAID unit from that server and installed on another server for migrating data to another server. After that, the same RAID unit may be removed from the other server and reinstalled back to the original server. In this case, the original server will detect this condition and display a message to the user indicative of the has-been-used status of the reinstalled RAID unit, telling the user that the reinstalled RAID unit contains data that were previously used on this server. If the user still wants to use the old data on the reinstalled RAID unit the user needs to choose a non-formatting installation procedure for the reinstallation of the RAID unit. If the user inadvertently choose a formatting installation procedure, the old data on the RAID unit will be entirely lost.
If the user doesn't want to keep the old data on the reinstalled RAID unit and instead wants to reformat the RAID unit, then the user needs to manually choose an option in the user interface to change the utilization status of the RAID unit from “has-been-used status” into “usable status ”, whereby the RAID unit is set to be reformattable. This precaution step can help prevent the reinstalled RAID unit which still contains usable data from being mistakenly regarded by the user as a brand new RAID unit and thus formatted by the user during the reinstallation procedure that would cause all the old data in the reinstalled RAID unit to be lost.
One drawback to the above-mentioned method, however, is that if a user (i.e., system management personnel) remove a RAID unit from a server and mistakenly install that RAID unit on another server of a not-fully-compatible model, then the other server might be unable to read the “has-been-used status” attribute data from that RAID unit, such that it will wrongly display a “usable status” message to the user. In this case, it would be highly likely that the user would mistakenly choose a formatting installation procedure that causes all the old data on the RAID unit to be entirely lost.